The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-11-12
ENSlLAGE RATiONS.
Notes and Suggestions Submitted by an
Experienced Agriculturist.

owners of this country are so varied
and the plans of raising silage so diff
ferent that it is difficult to ~ down
any definite rules in regard to silage
feeding. The original idea of ensilage
was to secure by some means as great
a growth of fodder as possible, paying
no attention to grain bearing along
with stalk growth. By this plan silage
was largely "greenness and water"
and in feeding it great quantity was
necessary for ration, and so, perforce,
grain in form OF oats, bran. iinseed
meal, and like heterogeneous foods had
to be fed to give balanced ration.
Under this system we heard of cows
consuming bushels each, of silage per
day, and II large grain ration in adj
dition. In the early days of ensilage
men told me they fed from seventy-fvo
to one hundred pounds per day to
grown animals, and the effect was
much as it would be to gorge an ami
nal on any other sort of dilute food.
1t was not long before the advocates
of exclusive silage feeding discovered
that the ration was too bulky, and that
not only was it better to direct the
growth of the silage fodder towards
grain-bearing, but that there must be
y rotation of crops on the farm. This
implied some clover and tame hay, a
certain amount of stalks from field corn,
which should be fed along with the
silage; and so from these causes there
| has been a reduction in the amount of
the daily Silage ration; and to ny
knowledge last winter from twenty-five
to fifty pounds, along with other feed
ing materials, was about the average
amount fed.
Necessarily there was curtailment
grain growth was made prominent in
the raising of ensilage fodder. Grad
uallv, in this, the amount of ensilage
seed corn has been reduced to about
twelve to fourteen quarts per acre, and
this thinning out not only gives a strong,
lusty stalk in place of the spindling
one, but big, well developed ear of
grain on about every stalk that adds
fully one-half to the ration, pound for
pound. This season drilled in my en-
silage in rows three feet eight inches
apart, Il kernel each six or eight inches
! in the row, and the result has been
more like field corn in its development
of grain-not attempts at ears, but
| f,,n c;,n1 with GIlo1 aud ,,IpA,tN
kernels. The stalks growing twelve
and fourteen feet high, will average
twenty good ears to each twenty-five
stalks, and as we cut them into the silo,
the silage as it came falling from the
''snoot," seemed white with its mixture
of corn, and must make ration that
has more than twice the feeding value
of silage that bears no grain-for the
latter is largely lacking in sugar and
starch-and proportionate smaller
amount must have equal feeding value.
The cutlery against silage for the
dairy has ceased, and no one now dis
putes the excellence Of milk made from
good silage ration-aud to do SO
would be to fly in the face of facts
and so how to feed silage after it has
been cooked in the pit, is of some
moment. The silagc is ready to feed
as soon as the temperature has fallen to
about eighty degrees, which it seems to
do readily in about three weeks, after
putting on the covers. A very desirable
thing to do, when ready to commence
feeding, is to remove the covers all off
from one pit, and remove the silage as
wanted evenly from the surface. This
method gives the silage chance to be-
come "aired" and lose its fresh, and
often somewhat pungent, odor; and
then it can not give to the milk any
foreign flavor. In feeding the silage
should be removed from the surface of
the pit so frequently that there is no
chance for any change to occur in its
chemical character; and observance of
this rule. even with what is known as
sour silage, prevents any deterioration
in the milk.
When bran is fed, it is desirable that
the amount should be divided and put
on the morning and evening silage
feeds The two arc then eaten together,
and go through the animal laboratory
together for digestion and assimilation,
and no known method of feeding can
better this.
Hardness in feeding silage is great
ly promoted by using two-wheeled
wheel-barrow. Such barrow is not
inclined to tip over, and if made to
hold about five or six bushels, it will
contain silagc sufficient for about
twelve cows. BY weighing few scoop
shovelfuls, one can quickly learn to
weigh ration by the eye and hand,
and the work Of feeding stable of
cows or steers is quickly performed,
! and the bran can be added to the sill
age in the manger, and the proportion
for each animal can be varied as cir.
cumstances may warrant. Gould,
in Rural Neo0 Yorker.
Little George used to say his even.
ing prayer while sitting in his mother
, lap. One night he hoped down, and
dropping on his knees, raised his hands